Rapid Colorimetric Determination of Procalcitonin Using Magnetic Separation and Enzymatic Catalysis

Human procalcitonin is an early diagnostic biomarker for sepsis and bacterial infections and can be used in distinguishing bacterial infections from viral infections. In this study, a colorimetric sensing platform for the rapid determination of procalcitonin was developed. The approach involves the capture of procalcitonin by immunomagnetic beads, and a detection antibody labeled with horseradish peroxidase to perform sandwich format, where it catalyzes the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′–tetramethylbenzidine to produce the colorimetric signal. Under the optimal conditions, a detection limit of 0.04 ng/mL (3σ) was obtained within the calibration range 0.1–10 ng/mL. The proposed method was performed in less than 90 min and exhibited good specificity without interferences from other biomarkers including C-reactive protein and human serum albumin. Overall, the proposed method provided a new alternative strategy for procalcitonin detection due to its sensitive, rapid, specific, and simple characteristics. This method is suitable for rapid screening of various biomedical targets.